BLUFF CITY, Tenn. - What looked like a stirring homecoming victory for the Sullivan East football team ended up being a gut-punch of a defeat.
Esteban Mendoza’s fumble return for a touchdown with 39 seconds remaining capped a furious comeback by Unicoi County, which rallied from 21 points down to defeat East 35-28 on Friday night.
Unicoi (6-0) preserved its undefeated record while East (1-5) was dealt arguably an even tougher loss than its 7-6 defeat to Johnson County earlier this month.
“I made some bad calls in there that didn’t put our kids in the best position to be successful,” East coach J.C. Simmons said. “This game’s on me. My kids fought their butts off all night for four quarters. Every one of them gave everything they had. It’s on me.”
For the first 30 or so minutes of football, the Patriots looked more like an undefeated squad, especially with their ability to move the ball on offense. East quarterback Drake Fisher finished with a season-high 350 yards through the air, completing 21 of his 35 throws with one interception and four touchdowns.
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After Unicoi returned the opening kickoff into East territory, the Devils promptly scored on a four-play drive and it looked like a difficult night might be in store for the Patriots. Instead, the Patriots found a way to hold the Unicoi offense in check, while East’s own attack got rolling. East scored three touchdowns in the second quarter, all on throws by Fisher, to take a 21-7 lead into the half. The TDs came on a 31-yard pass to Lucas Hare, a 14-yard strike to Hunter Brown and a 33-yard connection with Hare.
The Patriots kept the positive momentum going coming out of the locker room, with Brayden Ringley snaring an interception near midfield to quash Unicoi’s first drive of the half. East cashed in, with Fisher hooking up with Hare once more, this time from 28 yards.
The Patriots had built a 28-7 lead with 5:14 left in the third, but as it turned out the stage merely was set for Unicoi’s comeback. After sticking with a ground game led by workhorse back Nehemiah Edwards for much of the night, Unicoi went to the air, advancing beyond the East 30 before Edwards ultimately reached the end zone on a 9-yard jaunt.
East’s ensuing possession lasted just three plays, ending in an interception, and Edwards scored on the very next snap—this time on a 21-yard run.
After forcing the Pats to turn it over on downs, Unicoi strung together perhaps its best drive of the game, a 14-play drive capped by a 3-yard TD run by Edwards. The Devils pulled out all the stops on this possession, converting two fourth downs—and that didn’t count a double pass from Lucas Slagle to Brayden Hendrickson that reaped 26 yards.
East marched into Unicoi territory on its next drive, ultimately needing to punt, but got the ball back when freshman Tyler Cross picked off Bryson Peterson at midfield. On the very next play, Slagle delivered a punishing hit on Fisher. The ball came loose and Mendoza scooped it up and dashed 37 yards to the end zone.
Mendoza had a simple description of his thought process when he saw the ball:
“Pick it up and score,” he said. “As soon as I picked it up, my foot started cramping up. I was just like, keep going, keep going, keep going.
“Everything did not feel real. Everything felt like a dream.”
In addition to Fisher’s big night passing the ball, Hare tallied 217 yards on 11 catches with the three touchdowns. Brown made eight grabs for 92 yards.
Edwards led the Unicoi offense, accumulating 163 rushing yards on 26 carries with three scores of his own.
Unicoi County 7 0 14 14 — 35
Sullivan East 0 21 7 0 —28
Scoring Summary
UC - Edwards 3 run (Lopez kick)
SE - Hare 31 pass from Drake Fisher (kick failed)
SE - Brown 14 pass from Fisher (Hare pass from Fisher)
SE - Hare 33 pass from Fisher (Hamelryck kick)
SE: Hare 28 pass from Fisher (Hamelryck kick)
UC - Edwards 9 run (Lopez kick)
UC - Edwards 21 run (Lopez kick)
UC - Edwards 3 run (Lopez kick)
UC - Mendoza 37 fumble return (Lopez kick)
Team stats
First downs: UC 12, SE 11; Rushes-yards UC 40-186, SE 15-0; Yards passing: UC 85, SE 330; Comp.-Att.-Int.: UC 6-11-1, SE 21-36-1; Fumbles-lost UC 0-0, SE 1-1; Punts-avg.: UC 3-25.7, SE 5-33.2; Penalties-yards: UC 7-65, SE 5-45